WZ-122 main battle tank

WZ-122 Main Battle Tank
Project 122 tank prototype
Type	Main Battle Tank
Place of origin	China
Production history
No. built	Only several prototypes
Specifications
Mass	≤37.5 Tonnes (1970 blueprint)[1]
Length	Unknown
Width	Unknown
Height	Unknown
Crew	4
Armor	Unknown
Main armament	Experimental 120mm smoothbore tank gun
Secondary armament	1 × 12.7 mm AA MG 1 × 7.62 mm MG 4 × Anti-tank guided missile
Engine	Diesel 650–680 hp (480–510 kW) (in 1970s plan)
Suspension	Hydropneumatic suspension (WZ-122A) torsion-bar (WZ-122B)

The WZ-122 (Chinese: WZ-122主戰坦克) was a main battle tank developed by the People's Republic of China. With its development starting in March 1970, the WZ-122 would implement several experimental technologies, including hydromatic transmission system, hydropneumatic suspension and the world's first 120mm smoothbore gun, as an effort to develop China's first indigenous second-generation main battle tank.^[2] After several prototypes were built, the plan was largely abandoned in 1974.^[3]

The development was reinstated in 1977 and into the 1980s with several prototypes such as the WZ-1224 and WZ-1226. Most of the prototypes were not accepted into production due to reliability and technology issues (with the exception of Type 80), still, WZ-122 project provided a technological basis for the development of various later Chinese vehicles, such as China's own third-generation main battle tank, the ZTZ-96 and ZTZ-99.